The trend toward obesity has impacted health care industries more than some others, since health care providers attempt to treat obesity as well as treating patients dealing with the side effects of obesity, including vascular difficulties, diabetes, and so forth.
Health care providers and vendors to the health care industry have been required to develop products that will suit the unique needs of this population, including wheelchairs, toilets, and hospital beds that support additional size and weight. Furniture for waiting rooms and patient examination rooms are also needed.
The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturing Association (BIFMA) promulgates preferred standards for such furniture. Typically, attempts to provide furniture for this population of patients focus simply on function: appropriate seating for bariatric patients must be sturdy enough to hold a patient's weight, large enough to accommodate his or her girth, allow the patient relatively simple ingress and egress, and not be susceptible to tipping during ingress and egress. It is notable that when an obese person sits in the traditional orientation in a standard sized chair, with hips parallel to the chair back, poor posture is often observed due to the seat's inability to properly accommodate the person's body size.
Many providers have been able to meet the functional needs of bariatric patients, but even when in accordance with BIFMA standards, meeting these functional needs has essentially consisted of creating a stretched and reinforced version of regular seating. This furniture has the awkward appearance of being for an obese person such that the patient is required to use a “special” chair. This approach is in conflict with health care providers' ultimate goal of treating all patients with respect and dignity, and presents bariatric patients with additional barriers and stigma in the common areas and examination/treatment rooms of health care facilities. In addition, the stretched and reinforced versions typically fail to comfortably seat the remainder of the patient population, so that the health care provider who seeks to make both obese and non-obese patients comfortable, including most hospitals, doctor's offices, therapy providers and the like, are obliged to have both bariatric and non-bariatric seating available.
Current bariatric seating solutions also fail to appreciate the fact that obese people frequently are unable to rest their arms directly against their bodies due to a combination of arm and body girth. In addition, obese people often sit higher in chairs due to additional tissue covering the rear end and thighs. Further, chairs that have openings at the side and/or back fail to provide a sense of visual privacy, and again such furniture falls short of health care providers' desire to provide an environment that allows all patients to be as physically and emotionally comfortable as possible.
FIGS. 7-8 illustrate the ways that research has shown obese people, such as a bariatric patient 2, typically sit down in standard armless chairs 4, such as are often found in waiting rooms and elsewhere. Specifically, obese people tend to approach entry to a seat 6 from the side, i.e., with hips oriented perpendicular to the chair back 8. It is believed that the side approach enables a better fit onto the seat and, perhaps more importantly, provides for easier entry into the seat. Frequently, this approach is accompanied by use of an arm on the chair back (not shown) to support the person's weight.
Egress from a chair is equally important. Obese people tend to advance toward the front of the chair and use the armrests to aid in egress. However, currently available bariatric furniture provides a seating depth that is approximately equal from side to side and front to back. It does not make accommodations for a bariatric patient's need to shift a large body weight, usually heavily balanced toward the rear of the person, forward and out of a seated position.
A need exists for a seating solution that will address the seating needs of all sizes of people, including obese people, and will thus provide a health care facility with a single seating solution for its common areas. A seating solution that includes armrests that are wider and taller than in standard seating furniture, and preferably that provides an enclosed space around the sides and back of the furniture is also desirable. In addition, the angle of approach and departure from a seating solution is significant. A need exists for a seating solution that provides a shallow angle of ingress and egress such that it is easily approached from the side and allows a bariatric patient to readily shift his or her weight forward into a standing position.